Infiltration

Hanging around a hill that's near one of the factories, Lia brings up something I managed to miss.

"Cory, the sun just rose, how do you expect us to both get in and move around unseen when the place is probably crawling with people."

"I honestly didn't think about that. I guess we could knock out a couple of the workers before they arrive and take their clothes, sneaking in like that."

"That won't work. We stand out too much, you more so. Dragonoids are very uncommon in Lausiel, and your feathered tail and wings make it very easy to identify you."

"Yeah, I figured that idea wouldn't work. Is waiting around until they nightfall the only option? Simply breaking in isn't gonna work, right?"

"Probably not. If what we are looking for is actually there, then there's a good chance that all the weapons would be used on us. And if they aren't there, then we've exposed our intentions and would most likely alert the people in charge, making any future attempt at securing the weapons more difficult. Now suck it up and keep an eye on the guards. Your eyesight is far superior to mine to try and watch for any patterns in how the guards move, we might be able to use that information later tonight."

Shifting my focus over towards the sentries, I take note of their movement pattern, how often they change shifts and look for any potential blind spots. And after almost twelve hours of this, we finally get to do something.

"Here's what I've come up with, the patrolling guards atop the walls change shift every hour and during this shift change, for about one and a half minutes there is a blind spot we can use to sneak in past the walls. After that, we'll need to find a way inside, but there is only a single entrance that serves as the only exit, and it is of course guarded. Before finding a way past the door guards, we will have to constantly need to be moving to avoid the patrols around the perimeter as we only have a little over a minute before we are seen. The guards who watch the door seem to swap out every four hours, and the next swap should be soon. My idea is that after they swap, we can kill them and then prop up the bodies so the patrols on the wall don't suspect anything, it's not like they can see from up there. The only problem is the time window to do this is very short, from our entrance we only have until the blind spot is covered."

"Sounds a little difficult, but not impossible. When do we have to head over?"

"The shift change is in two minutes."

"... The hell! why'd you wait until now to tell me this! Let's get going, and since you know where we need to be, you take the lead."

Under the cover of the night and with the help of a bit of Metal Manipulation, I open a small hole in the wall for us to fit through and quickly seal it up as we make our way to the entrance.

"Wait, if this is how we are getting past the wall then why not just open a hole in the factory's wall just like you did with the wall surrounding the factory? Much easier than all this trouble."

"Uh, I knew that, I was just testing you to make sure you also knew."

"No you weren't, let's just hurry it up before anyone catches us."

Taking the significantly easier route that I was totally aware of and didn't overlook, we make a clean entrance into the factory and begin looking around. Much like the outside, the inside has plenty of guards. A few guards here and there can be excused for this place being outside of the city, but there has to be something of value if there are so many guards around here.

It takes a little longer than I had hoped since we had to avoid the patrols but we found what we were looking for, almost. Something valuable was certainly being produced here, but it wasn't the guns, rather, it was the ammunition for them that was being produced here.

"So is this what we are supposed to be looking for?"

"Close, it's related. Much like a bow shoots an arrow, this is what a gun shoots. I'll gather up some of this and put it in my storage then we'll get out of here."

As I am gobbling down large loads of the ammunition, we are interrupted as a voice yells out from behind us, with a handgun pointed at us.

"Halt trespassers!"

Without a second thought, both Lia and I turn and to attack the man shouting at us. He didn't seem to be ready for our attack as we incapacitate him with ease, but before I can finish him off, Lia stops me.

"Don't kill him just yet, we should try and pry some information about the other factories from him."

"Oh, good idea."

Carrying the unconscious body with us, we find a corner and I construct a small room for us. I try to add as many layers as I can to the outside to soundproof the room and as its construction finishes, I tie down the man and drip some of my acid on his arm.

Waking up almost instantly, he screams in pain and cries out, "Kill me! I won't give you anything, so just kill me!"

"So he says. Cory, do you have ways to make him talk? He seems pretty stubborn."

"I've got some ideas, just keep using healing magic on him to make sure he doesn't die in the process."

I begin to heat up the metal board I tied him down to while continuing to drip my corrosive acid onto various places on his body while also crafting barbed needles and thrusting them into various pressure points. He cries out in pain constantly as the torture continues for almost half an hour until he finally gives and saying that he'll talk.

"What do the other factories around here produce?" I ask.

"J-just more ammo, like what you saw earlier, some produce the parts for our weapons though." He says in a haggard voice.

"And where are the weapons, the guns, produced?"

"They..." He trails off, seemingly reluctant to tell.

Creating another barbed needle in front of him he frantically yells, "I'll talk! I'll talk! The guns are only produced in the cities near the Capital."

"I see, thanks. And since we don't need you anymore, goodbye," I say plunging several of my barbed needles into his heart and increasing the intensity of the heat beneath him, with the System confirming the end his life.

Swiping away his handgun and putting it in my stomach storage, I start to take down the walls around us, but as I bring them down I notice that we've been surrounded by over a hundred guards, all of which are points their guns at us.

"There's an opening, fire!" one of them yells as I hurriedly restore the walls.

"Soooo, we're surrounded," I say.

"Yeah, I noticed. But you don't seem too worried."

"We moved over to a corner before setting this room up because I had half expected this to happen. We had a real easy time over the course of this entire operation and with my luck, something bad was bound to happen soon. So I constructed this room in a corner of the factory so in case we got surrounded, we can just leave in the same manner we came. The only problem with this is that I wouldn't know where we exit, but since most of the guards are aware of our presence and are currently surrounding us, this becomes less of a problem. So let's head back."

Just as I thought, I find that the guards along the wall have left their post and are probably inside the factory right now. We still remain vigilant as we leave, but nothing unexpected happens as we head back to the inn and begin to make plans to move out towards a city near the Capital of Lausiel.